April 10, 2019, by atynf

Feeling Empowered: A Day In The Life Of A UoN Philosophy Student

This morning I went to a 9am Philosophy lecture and I learnt something; a wild phenomenon considering I hadn’t even had my morning coffee!

You’d hope that I did learn something, bearing in mind we were learning about teaching in Teaching and Learning (building). We Philosophers do love a meta moment, sorry.

What my brain pictured when I had my inception moment Image Source

We got told that, as students, we have the power to decide whether we’re being taught!

Picture me strutting out of my 9am feeling like I run the world. I mean that’s if you take “judgements of suitable agents in ideal conditions” to be the definition of running the world and shhh because I do.

Me feeling empowered when I realised that I decide whether I’m being taught  Image Source

You’re probably thinking “that last sentence went from 0-100 real quick”, so let me explain what this means.

Isn’t teaching just this?!…

If you’re anything like pre-enlightened me, then you think that teaching is either about the intention of your teacher or the learning of the person being taught. You’d be wrong!

Enter: Fisher and Tallant’s trusted paper.

Your definitions of teaching are relevant though, as the paper spoke about intention and learning.

Image Source

Me realising you’re basically a scholar because you’re keeping up with undergrad Philosophy  Image Source

I’m wrong, but why?!

The learning account doesn’t hold because you may never learn how to kick a ball even if your P.E. teacher has tried their best to teach you.

The same goes for intention. You may learn how to throw a ball by watching your sister even though she’d never intended to teach you.

Oh yeah, I have the power, so my ego is restored…

But don’t worry because teaching as a judgement-dependence account is here to save the day. That’s when you decide if your teacher is teaching you, providing it’s in ideal conditions. Only then are you being taught!

When you suddenly realise that you want to go to UoN  Image Source

If this interested you, then studying Philosophy at UoN might just be the right fit for you.

All in-text images courtesy of Giphy.

Featured image courtesy of Search Engine People Blog via Flickr. Image license found here.

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